1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus useful for storing matter out of contact with gas. Several embodiments of the present invention are particularly useful for storing food matter in a bag from which the air, prolonged contact with which would tend to cause deterioration to the food, is exhausted prior to placing the bag in a freezer for storage.
2. Description of the Background
It is desirable to store certain matter in the absence of gas, to avoid the deterioration to the matter which would occur because of chemical reactions between it and the gas. It is well known, for example, that certain foodstuffs deteriorate in the presence of air, particularly when they are stored for long periods, as in a freezer for instance. Freeze and other bags have long been available with manual ties or with closure strips to exclude gas, for example air. Examples of closure strips are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,416,199, 4,186,786, 4,212,337, 4,285,105, 4,362,198, 4,363,345, and 4,829,641, and the large number of such patents indicates the perceived desirability of gas-tight seals, and so the exclusion of gas, for examples air, from storage bags and other containers.
However, it is a fact that placing matter in a container for storage, unless done in a vacuum, which would require costly apparatus not economically available for instance to a typical member of the public, almost always means that gas, for example air, is included with the storable matter in the container storage space. In the case for example of a food storage bag employing one of the closures disclosed in the above-mentioned U.S. patents, air could be manually squeezed out of the bag after the storable matter has been inserted, but it is well known that air will be retained in the folds of the bag and crevices in the storage matter and that more air will be admitted into the bag during the action of sealing the closure shut. In attempts to solve this problem of retained air, several types of unidirectional valve have been invented, so that the bag closure can be sealed before the retained air is manually squeezed out of the bag through the valve which in turn, because of its being unidirection, prevents re-entry into the bag of the air so squeezed out. Those unidirectional valves are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,576,322, 2,913,030, 4,532,652 and 4,712,249. However, even after the manual expulsion of air through a unidirectional valve it is well known that air remains inside the bag, trapped in the internal folds of the bag and in the crevices of the storable matter within the bag. It is to satisfy a long-felt need for a storage apparatus which will effectively extract substantially all gas, for example air, from contact with the storable matter that the present invention, comprising a container in novel combination with a vacuum pump having at its inlet a novel long-term sealing device, has been made. The large number of patents granted for containers and valves to be employed for reducing contact between stored matter and gas, but without the effective, total gas extraction and lock-sealing features of the present invention indicates the desirable utility and non-obviousness thereof.